Rain falling over the Texas Panhandle is good news, but, the blessing was mixed for emergency crews in Amarillo.

“I called dispatch,” Amarillo Fire Department District Chief Greg Mayes said Monday night. “We had every station empty. We’re all over town.”

Police, fire and EMS crews scrambled to respond to wrecks, stranded vehicles, roadway debris and fire calls as a downpour of rain with high wind gusts hit the city Monday night. National Weather Service meteorologist John Cockrell said more than seven-tenths of an inch fell at Rick Husband Amarillo International Airport, and wind gusts as high as 78 mph were recorded in town.

“It’s been making a steady march on east and lots of the Texas Panhandle has received some beneficial rain,” Cockrell said. “It’s literally pouring.”

About 9:10 p.m., firefighters were waiting for Xcel Energy crews to meet them at 4215 S.W. 10th Ave., where a downed power line started a house fire. No injuries were reported. Potter-Randall Appraisal District Records list Rex Farrar as the homeowner and shows the property’s appraised value to be $100,420.

Mayes said he could not begin to estimate how many emergency calls went out, but said he had not heard any reports of serious injuries.

Xcel Energy spokesman Wes Reeves said more than 13,000 customers lost power Monday.

Employees from Xcel’s New Mexico and South Plains districts came to the aid of local crews, but many customers would likely be without power until Tuesday morning, Reeves said.

By 9 a.m. Monday morning, Reeves said Excel Energy had revised its customer count to about 4,000 Amarilloans without power.

"The restoration is almost a house-to-house effort at this time. Most of the damage is from trees impacting individual service lines," he said.

Reeves said there will probably be some customers whose electricity cannot be restore until their property damage is repaired and inspected by the City of Amarillo.

"But for the rest, we still are working toward a 5 p.m. restoration unless the light of day reveals other issues," he said. "Additional resources continue to arrive."

Amarillo police warned of flooding and stranded vehicles along Interstate 40 from Paramount Boulevard to Bell Street, and at underpasses near Southeast 10th Avenue and Grant Street and Interstate 27 and Southeast 27th Avenue.

ADVISORY: Users are solely responsible for opinions they post here and for
following agreed-upon rules of civility. Posts and
comments do not reflect the views of this site. Posts and comments are
automatically checked for inappropriate language, but readers might find some
comments offensive or inaccurate. If you believe a comment violates our rules,
click the "Flag as offensive" link below the comment.

Comment viewing options

Sort Comments

Select your preferred way to display the comments and click "Save settings" to activate your changes.

What a moronic statement! DC Mayes was not complaining. He was asked a question and he answered it. If you only had any idea on how many calls they actually deal with and what they have to deal with you wouldn't be complaining. From the time the storm hit to well after it left they were extremely busy with structure fires, downed power lines, medical emergencies, water rescues, etc... We're talking call volumes near 500 - 600 in a period of 2 - 3 hours.

Police, fireman, and Xcel guys earn their money. Especially on nights like last night. While we're running for cover, they are heading out in it. While we are saying that lightening strike was close, Xcel guys have those wires in their hands trying to get our power back on.

We were trying to cookout when it hit, my husband and the kids came running in, saying "IT'S A MONSOON" lol. But we discussed it, and rather than putting the steaks in a pan, we decided, it would pass quickly and we could resume, and just eat a little late. As far as our house, we were right. Sorry to those who were inconvenienced by power outages or those that had to get out in that nasty stuff for work. But awfully thankful for the moisture!!

I am out of town. Can anyone tell me if the far SW side (Westover Village) of Amarillo had any large hail or high winds? From what I've read, it appears most of the wind damage occurred near the San Jacinto and Amarillo College areas. This year most of the rain seemed to bypass my neighborhood.

Is it really necessary to list the property owner and the value of his home?
I know it is public record and anyone could go and look it up but just because you can doesn't mean that you should.
Please respect the little bit of privacy that we as free citizens retain.

Rain of that magnitude does not help the drought it only washes away the topsoil doing further damage to our already struggling ecosystem. What we need is days and days of gentle rain. But of course you are too busy being a judgmental pompous jerk to know that aren't you rlk.

And watched a hurricane blow through Amarillo. I was shrivering due to the cold front and rain, but it was so nice to feel and smell the rain I had to stay and watch it all. Really cool lightning as well. Sorry for those who had outages and fires, that is really sad. Otherwise, it was awesome to watch.

My husband worked for SPS/Xcel for 30 years before having to retire due to cancer. I promise you they work in extreme heat, extreme cold, wind, snow, ice, thunder storms, mud, you name it. I wouldn't get in a high reach during a severe thunder storm to connect a broken power line. It's extremely dangerous! The work is hard & yes they do get paid well, but they earn every penny of their wages. One year my husband was working on a storm break in Vernon, TX, for 27 days straight,16 hours a day. I applaud the firemen, EMS personnel, police, sheriff dept., DPS & Xcel employees for the risk they take every day to serve our community.

You are correct, Texas Mom, we need a slow, gentle rain for a few days at a time to really help the soil moisture profile. Heavy, blowing rains, while they provide some relief and certainly do save on car washes, do not soak into our clay soil all that well. Once the soil is saturated, all the excess water just drains off into the playas.

If all you're trying to do is [filtered word] people off with your idiotic drivel, it's working.
If however, you want to be a productive and RESPECTED contributor to this forum, you really are going about it in the wrong way.
Just a word to the other posters....I think this person (rlk) is some immature, snot nosed, pimply faced punk who has nothing better to do (and obviously no intelligence to do it), than to stir up hate and discontent. Just ignore him/her, and hopefully, IT will go away!!!